At GH Eye we use ICARE Tonometry and NOT Air Puff Tonometry to measure the pressure in your eyes. (Checking eye pressures is one of the ways we make sure you do not have glaucoma.)

Funny that eye care professionals consider Air Puff Tonometry a “gentle puff of air” while patients remember it as a “blast of air”. In fact, when we seat patients in front of one of our other optical instruments, we see some of them flinch because they think they are going to be puffed. Patients visibly relax when we let them know we are a ‘puff-less’ office.

Prior to the development of the air puff, there was the dreaded Schiotz device. It had something to do with placing weights on the eye. Must have been a big relief to patients and doctors when they could use a puff of air instead.

And in the era before Schitoz Tonometry, doctors could determine if the pressure in the eyes was elevated by digitally pressing on a patient’s eyes. In this case “digitally” refers to a doctor’s fingertips — a very inadequate way to check for pressure elevation.

We’ve come a long way in terms of how to check for ocular pressure. Our patients appreciate that the ICARE Tonometer we use in our office does not require numbing drops or an air puff. We use it on kids and adults. For some patients, when more detailed analysis is needed, we also use our Goldmann Tonometer, which requires eye drops, but does not puff air.

If you’ve been putting off your annual eye exam because you “hate that puff” now you have no more excuses. At GH Eye, you will never be “puffed”!

Dr. Ally Stoeger provides annual eye examinations, medical eye care, contact lens examinations and Lasik/refractive surgery co-management in the Gainesville-Haymarket area of Virginia. GH Eye also has a superb collection of frames and high tech lenses.